Arlington Matron no downer for Upperline

The Grade III $150,000 Arlington Matron is Arlington International Racecourse's premier Polytrack race for fillies and mares and Upperline won it with authority Saturday.

With that mission accomplished, trainer Mike Stidham has his sights set on the track's richest and most prestigious race for fillies and mares, the $750,000 Beverly D., on the grass course Aug. 18.

"Believe me, it's on her agenda," Stidham said after the 5-year-old bay mare won the Matron by 4 lengths, going the 11/8 miles in 1:51.73 as the 2-1 favorite in the field of seven. "That's all we've been talking about.

"First, the Modesty (a Grade III $200,000 prep on the turf on July 14) and then the Beverly D."

In her preceding outing, Upperline demonstrated her aptitude for both grass racing and distance racing by winning the Grade III Bewitch over a 11/2-mile route at Keeneland.

"She's equally good on turf and Poly," Stidham said. "As she has matured we found the farther the better. She has some early tactical speed, she settles and then she comes charging. Today she did it just like she did it at Keeneland.

"James (Graham) fits her so well. He has been doing a great job of riding her."

Graham kept Upperline in contending position along the rail while Hooh Why set the pace for the first mile. With an eighth mile to run, he took her outside to overtake Hooh Why and pull away.

"I knew when we got clear she'd kick" Graham said. "She's a big mare. She picked it up when she got room and off she went. She kept finding more, finding more, finding more. I never had a worry."

The other major race on the Saturday card was the $125,000 Arlington Classic, first leg of the track's Mid-America Triple series of grass races for 3-year-olds, and it was won by 3-5 favorite Silver Max, another horse who is being primed to return for a Grade I turf race Aug. 18.

The front-running 2-length triumph in the 11/16-mile Classic was the fourth consecutive victory and fifth in six starts this year for Silver Max and it affirmed that he is a prime North American candidate for the $500,000 Secretariat that will be run on the same afternoon as the Beverly D. and the Arlington Million.

"We got to the front pretty easily and it was all business from there," said Shaun Bridgmohan, who rode Silver Max for owners Mark Bacon and Dana Wells and trainer Dale Romans. "I was just a passenger."

Sachem Spirit, making his stakes racing debut after taking the last two of his three career races, was the runner-up and Najjaar was third in the 10-horse race that Silver Max won in 1:41.87.

"We had another horse stumble right in front of us coming out of the gate so we got a little farther back than we wanted," said Sachem Spirit's jockey, Corey Lanerie. "He was coming at the end but Silver Max isn't the kind of horse that will come back to you."